Country News
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Thursday, July 16, 2020
- Tobacco smoking in three “left behind” subgroups: indigenous, the rainbow community and people with mental health conditions
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This paper aims to investigate the extent to which three subgroups – people with mental
health conditions, people belonging to sexual minority and gender groups and Indigenous peoples –
have been ‘‘left behind’’ by countries implementing the World Health Organization’s Framework
Convention on Tobacco Control. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of
Noncommunicable Diseases 2013–2020 target is to reduce the prevalence of current
tobacco use by 30% in persons aged 15 and older between 2010 and 2025 [...]
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Tuesday, July 14, 2020
- Tobacco harm reduction in the 21st century
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This paper aims to overview the need for tobacco harm reduction, the consumer products that facilitate tobacco harm reduction and the barriers to its implementation. The worldwide endemic of tobacco smoking results in the death of over seven million smokers a year. Cigarette quit rates are very low, from 3%–12%, and relapse rates are high, from 75%–80% in the first six months and 30%– 40% even after one year of abstinence. In addition, some smokers do not desire to quit. Cigarette substitution in tobacco harm reduction is one strategy that may reduce the burden of morbidity and mortality.
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Tuesday, July 14, 2020
- Vaping easing'historic momentfor public health'
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Governments worldwide should not ban alternative smoking products, or they will miss an "enormous" opportunity to phase out traditional cigarettes, tobacco giant Philip Morris warned.
This came as the US Food and Drug Administration gave the company approval last week to market its four heat-not-burn tobacco devices as "modified risk tobacco products."
Philip Morris International chief executive Andre Calantzopoulos called the authorization a "historical moment" for public health.
"For so many years, tobacco control policies have focused on restrictive measures in order to convince people to quit [smoking]," he said, [...]
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Monday, July 06, 2020
- Lies, Hypocrisy and Bluster
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An employee of the magazine PR Week has been happy to trot out another unwarranted attack on the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World (FSFW), courtesy of the “tobacco industry watchdog”, Stopping Tobacco Organizations and Products (STOP). STOP, synonymous with the University of Bath’s ‘Tobacco Tactics’, is part of a coordinated approach to undermine tobacco harm reduction (THR) through slur and innuendo rather than address the actual science.
Bloomberg’s money works hard at STOP. Recently, one of the researchers at Bath contacted the Planet of the Vapes forum in order to gain assistance with “research”. The latest attack says that the World Health Organization is “concerned” by a “Big Tobacco-funded aggressive PR effort” during the current COVID-19 pandemic. They claim the FSFW is pulling strings in order to get its minions to conduct “research on tobacco users”. (...) STOP says FSFW funds “VIDA News to ‘increase public awareness of the drivers of smoking harm and the availability of alternatives’ [and] the International Network of Nicotine Consumer Organisations (INNCO) to ‘promote tobacco harm-reduction on the global stage’.”
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Friday, July 03, 2020
- 20% of Smoking-related Cancer Survivors Continue to Smoke, Study Finds
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Nearly 20 percent of survivors of smoking-related cancers continued to smoke even after recovery, according to a study published Thursday by JAMA Network Open. The percentage was far greater among survivors of all types of cancer who had been smokers. More than half -- 56 percent -- remained active smokers, they said. "The percentage of current smokers among smoking-related cancer survivors was substantially higher than that in the general population of about 14 percent," study co-author Sanjay Shete told UPI.
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Thursday, July 02, 2020
- Their Favorite Enemy
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The coronavirus pandemic could have been a chance for public health authorities and governments to promote tobacco harm reduction (THR). Instead, they resorted to well-known, tried-yet-unproven remedies, restricting sales channels or banning tobacco products altogether. Based on the assumption, not scientific evidence, that people who smoke or vape may be at greater risk for Covid-19, anti-tobacco campaigners considered the pandemic (...)